1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an automotive augmented reality head-up display apparatus and method and, more particularly, to an automotive augmented reality head-up display apparatus and method, which provide various types of convenience information, safe driving information, etc. to a driver seated in a vehicle as augmented reality so that the locations of the convenience information and the safe driving information match the locations of real-world information actually viewed by the driver, in various driving environments, such as day and night driving and driving in fog or heavy rain.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicle information provision devices that were developed in the past are classified into three types.
First, there is a ‘vehicle terminal’ which is mounted at the center of a lower right portion of a driver's seat and provides various types of information to the driver. Such a vehicle terminal is characterized in that, if information is provided by the vehicle terminal while the driver is driving a vehicle while looking forward, the driver is forced to turn his or her head or eyes in a direction in which the terminal is located so as to view the provided information. In this case, there is a risk of an accident occurring because the attention of the driver is diverted.
Second, there is a ‘Head-Up Display (HUD) apparatus’ mainly installed in a luxury vehicle. Such an HUD apparatus displays simple vehicle information, such as information about arrows guiding the driver along a changed route and text information indicative of speed, over a dashboard. Therefore, since the driver can view the information provided in front of the driver while looking forward without having to turn his or her eyes or head to view the provided information, the risk of an accident occurring due to the diversion of attention can be reduced. However, since the locations of the provided information are shown to the driver in a state in which the locations do not match the locations of forward real-world information (for example, roads, buildings, vehicles, traffic signs, etc.), a load occurs when the driver recognizes the provided information, thus deteriorating driving safety and convenience. Further, when location matching (alignment) with the real world is not possible, it is difficult to provide various types of information (for example, a lane, an obstruction such as a pedestrian or a forward vehicle, etc.) via the HUD.
Third, there is an ‘augmented reality HUD apparatus’ which has been investigated and developed so as to graft such an HUD apparatus onto a vehicle. This augmented reality HUD apparatus matches the locations of real-world information located in front of the driver with the locations of information displayed on the HUD based on the visual field of the driver, and provides safe driving information to the driver. Such an augmented reality HUD apparatus provides safe driving information in conformity with the locations of real-word information (objects), thus allowing the driver to more easily recognize the provided information. However, it is difficult to exactly match the locations of the augmented reality information with the locations of the real-world information and then provide the augmented reality information. The reason for this is that, for such matching, the position and posture of the vehicle must be precisely detected and recognized, and the position and posture of the head and eyes of the driver must also be precisely detected and recognized However, due to technical limitations, errors may occur in the precision of position and posture, and such an error may deteriorate accuracy in location matching between the real-world information and safe driving information.
An embodiment of such an augmented reality HUD apparatus is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2009-0076242 (entitled “Automotive HUD apparatus and method of controlling the operation of the same”). The automotive HUD apparatus presented in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2009-0076242 vertically and laterally adjusts the location of an HUD unit in accordance with the motion of the eyeballs of a driver, thus adjusting an angle of projection of image information on the HUD unit. However, the automotive HUD apparatus presented in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2009-0076242 is disadvantageous in that only the location at which virtual safe driving information is displayed can be changed by adjusting the angle of projection on the HUD unit in accordance with the motion of the eyeballs of the driver, and a direction or an angle cannot be changed.